The German government is preparing billions of euros of new investments into the nation’s semiconductor industry, two months after Intel Corp shelved plans to build a 30 billion euro (US$31.6 billion) chip factory in Magdeburg, Germany.
The new funds would be provided to chip companies to develop “modern production capacities that significantly exceed the current state of the art,” Annika Einhorn, a spokesperson from the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, said in a statement on Thursday.
The subsidies are expected to total about 2 billion euros, said two people who attended an official event about the funding plans this week and speaking on condition of anonymity.
Photo: Bloomberg
The sum would be in the “low single-digit billion euro range,” a spokesperson for the ministry said in response to a query from Bloomberg News, declining to be more specific.
The ministry had published a call for chips companies to apply for new subsidies earlier this month, although the final figures are still in flux. A new government is set to be elected in February and would likely plan its own budget, leaving uncertainty for the chip companies now applying for the subsidies.
Governments around the world have been investing public funds in the chip industry as part of an effort to localize production of components that control everything from cutting-edge artificial intelligence to everyday gadgets. The push comes after COVID-19 pandemic era supply disruptions and as rising tensions between the US and China over Taiwan could interfere with a key source of the essential technology.
The European Chips Act, passed last year, aims to strengthen the bloc’s semiconductor ecosystem and double its market share to 20 percent of global production capacity by 2030.
Germany’s chip sector has faced two major setbacks. Intel’s 30 billion euro chip factory in Magedeburg was on track to be the biggest project supported under the EU’s Chips Act with 10 billion euros in subsidies, but the troubled US company postponed its plans in September.
Wolfspeed Inc. and ZF Friedrichshafen AG also withdrew a planned chips venture in western Germany.
The first rounds of German subsidies under the EU’s Chips Act were granted to Intel and a joint venture between Infineon and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in Dresden, Germany.
Germany’s economic ministry wants to use the newly proposed funds to subsidize 10 to 15 projects across a range of fields, including the production of raw wafers and the assembly of microchips.
“The funded projects should contribute to a strong and sustainable microelectronics ecosystem in Germany and Europe,” Einhorn said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS